Dzar-Ghan (Alien Barbarians of Vandruk #3)

26. Chapter 26

She was asleep before we reached camp. Kissing her forehead, I placed her on the ground, needing both hands to cut a few more narran leaves before I built her a little nest and covered her naked form with another.

I donned my breeches and checked on the fire. It was still burning, albeit low, so I put more fuel on it. Next, I found a thin enough rock to place over the flames and added meat and marrut. I cleaned the hide and draped it over one of the countless dzukaki bushes.

I went back to the grasping sand to relieve the dead gorronga of his tail, which would make a formidable sword, his fangs, which would make excellent daggers, as well as his fur, which, once washed, would be incredibly soft and keep Jenna warm when the frost season arrived. A few of the teeth looked small enough to make a necklace out of for Jenna. I smiled to myself, imagining her surprise, and wondered if she would wear the spoils of the beast that had nearly killed her with pride. Then I remembered her reaction to me nearly killing the drycken on the first morning. My excitement over making a necklace for her diminished some as an unknown emotion overtook me. Insecurity. I had never been insecure about anything in my life, and I chuckled that this little, defenseless human had managed to do just that.

Back at camp, Jenna still slumbered where I had left her, looking beautiful and peaceful. I turned the meat and root and went to find us waro. I had watched Jenna use a container for waro before. Since I didn’t have any waroskins on me, it would have to do.

Vandruk was a generous planet when it came to waro. One only had to know where to look and would find a small stream, pond, river, or lake. If that failed, the dzukaki leaves held a pulp inside that could be sucked out. It was a little bitter but better than nothing. I was lucky, though, and found a small clearing where I filled the bottle.

When I returned, Jenna was still sleeping, and the food was done. Parts of a leaf served as plates, and I roused my slumbering mate. Mate . A smile stole around the edges of my lips. When I set out to find a mate and decreed I would take the first gallis who stepped through the red fog, I hadn’t had the faintest idea how much that mate would come to mean to me. How protective of her I would feel or how much her presence filled the void in my life. I wondered if all these years I had fooled myself with thinking that I had been so in love with Mynarra that I hadn’t been able to let go because of the guilt I felt for not having been able to save her, my mother, and my sisters. Guilt can be a powerful emotion, one that could render one frozen, stuck in time, very much like I had been. It was a futile exercise, though, because whatever my true feelings had been, they had led me right here to where I wanted to be the most, at Jenna’s side.

“Jenna, food.” I enticed her, watching her closely as her eyes opened and took me in. The smile that spread over her face was as precious as her; it made my heart beat funny and turned my stomach into a nervous turmoil, but those sensations felt good.

“Hmm, food,” she said, but her eyes were all on me, and so was her smile.

I nearly dropped the leaf with meat as a sudden surge ran through me to pull her against me, to make her mine again. She lifted her hand to grab the leaf plate, which was when I noticed her shaking hand. That was the only thing that brought me to my senses.

“Eat,” I said gruffly.

She barely managed to swallow her last bite before her eyes closed, and she fell asleep again. I let her rest, closing out our hiding spot when the fire had burned to the last ember. I lay down next to her, confident nothing would find us here, and if they did, opening the protective wall of nabshoot leaves I had furnished would stop any intruder and make enough noise to wake me. I just had to make sure Jenna didn’t wake without me, trying to get out.

For that and several other reasons, I lay down next to her and pulled her pliable body into my embrace. There was no way she would get out of my arms without waking me.